ICES Municipal Policy Toolkit

[1]Currently, urban areas contribute to roughly 40 percent of Canada’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. As urbanization progresses and Canada’s population increases, this number is set to increase dramatically. This creates an opportunity to address energy consumption while simultaneously improving the overall quality of life in Canadian communities –by facilitating and investing in Integrated Community Energy Solutions (ICES).

ICES takes advantage of cross-sectoral opportunities in the areas of land use, infrastructure, building, water and sanitation, transportation, and waste. The goal of ICES is to curb energy demand and reduce the associated environmental impacts, while increasing energy security, enhancing the quality of life and realizing financial benefits for Canadians.

While a variety of stakeholders influence the development and advancement of ICES, energy and emissions reduction decisions are strongly influenced by government policy choices. Upper-tier legislation and policy such as the Planning Act, the Provincial Policy Statement, the Building Code Act, the Green Energy and Economy Act, and the Places to Grow Act, are important in this regard. However, equally important are the choices made by local governments.

These choices shape the development of communities and directly influence energy use. Land use planning and infrastructure choices require identifying and using the best policy and technology tools in our tool box. This toolkit has been created in order to aid these decisions and highlight the various ways in which ICES can be adopted in our communities.

Download ICES Municipal Policy Toolkit [1]

Publisher: Quest Canada

Jan, 2011

Focus:

Strategy [2]

Resource filetype:

PDF [3]

Resource type:

Reports & Guides [4]

Community type:

Large city [5]

Mid-sized city [6]

Sector:

Energy [7]